The present invention relates to a tag-pin attaching apparatus for attaching labels such as price tags to clothes and other fabric materials.
Conventionally various types of tag-pin attaching apparatus are known, for instance, under the names of locking piece fitter and device for attaching connecting pieces, as disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,103,666, 4,310,962 and 4,402,446.
Generally a tag pin for use in the tag-pin attaching apparatus is made of plastics material and comprises a head part and a lateral rod which are integrally connected through a connecting filament. A number of the tag pins are integrally, but separably connected to form a tag-pin assembly.
The tag pins and tag-pin assemblies for use in the present invention may be the same as those employed conventionally, for instance, as those disclosed in the above-mentioned U.S. Patents. When the tag pins are attached to commercial products such as clothes, some products do not need any particular care, but other products must be handled with the utmost care so as not to be scratched by the tag pins. Depending upon the kind of the products for which tag pins are used, two types of tag pins are currently available. One type has a lateral rod having a diameter of about 1 mm, and the other has a lateral rod having a diameter of about 0.8 mm. In the future, tag pins having lateral rods with a smaller diameter will be used.
In accordance with the above-mentioned different diameters of the lateral rods, there are two types of tag-pin attaching apparatus for each diameter of the lateral rod.
In the tag-pin attaching apparatus, the position of a leading tag pin of a tag pin assembly is registered, and the leading tag pin is pushed into a hole formed in a guide needle (which hole is C-shaped in the cross section thereof) by a push-in rod, which has substantially the same diameter as that of the lateral rod, as the tag pin is cut at its connecting part off the tag-pin assembly. Therefore it is necessary that the hole of the guide needle and the push-in rod be concentrically positioned.
However, in a guide groove, a clearance of about 10 to 30% relative to the diameter of the lateral rod is necessary for smoothly guiding the tag-pin assembly therethrough. When there is such a clearance in the guide groove, the lateral rods are apt to move in the directions of the arrows as shown in FIG. 18, so that it is difficult to register the position of the lateral rod at its cutting position. Therefore, conventionally it is inevitable to use a tag-pin attaching apparatus which is exclusively designed for a particular diameter of the lateral rod.